If any of the above shortcuts are being taken because the autoclave cannot keep up with your demand, it is time to
either increase your inventory of handpieces and/or instruments, or get a second autoclave, or an autoclave that processes them faster.

How Is Sterilization Confirmed?

Sterilization can only be confirmed by testing for the survival of spores after a complete cycle in the autoclave.

After a spore strip is processed in a sterilizer, it is mailed to a monitoring service.

In a laboratory setting,
the spore strip is aseptically removed from its protective envelope and placed in a tube of culture media. It is
then incubated for 7 days.

For each of the 7 days, the tube of culture media is inspected for cloudiness.

If the spores are live and have not been killed, cloudiness is noted in the culture media. If no cloudiness is
noted in the culture media, then sterilization is confirmed.